Greater New Orleans

Baton Rouge officers at the scene of an incident on North 24th Street in Mid-City, where two police officers were stabbed and one person was shot and killed by police. (Diana Samuels, NOLA.com|The Times-Picayune)
(Diana Samuels, NOLA.com|The Times-Picayune)

Vehicle and home burglaries, armed robberies, assaults, hit-and-runs and stabbings and shootings, all can occur at anytime, but one, and often cited remedy, is adding more law enforcement to fight and deter crime.

That approach, however, isn't always the best one to take to decrease crime, but often a costly and ineffective one. Baton Rouge Police Cpl. L'Jean McKneely, a spokesperson for the department, says community involvement goes a long way in fighting crime.

"Without the community, regardless of how many police officers you got on each block, we wouldn't be able to do the things we do. They give us the information that point us in the right direction," McKneely said.

The Baton Rouge Police Department has anywhere between 640 and 660 police officers at any given time, but they are allotted up to 698 officers.

Currently, there's a police academy underway, and if they all make it through, McKneely, says the department would be close to 670 officers on the force.

The 80th basic training academy kicked off in June with 35 recruits. They are slotted to finish sometime in November.

Even though that number would increase the department's numbers, McKneely says they still have to account for retirement and attrition.

"We still have people retiring and actually that number will be replace officers who have left or about to leave," McKneely said. "We're hoping to do one or two more police academies next year."

The idea of increasing adding more officers helps but it doesn't give a full the police department a holistic approach to fight crime.

"More officers can always help in any situations but working with what we have, we feel like we're out there combating crime the best that we can and out there making a difference by the number of arrests we're making," McKneely said. "And we contribute that to the community, along with good police work."

McKneely said adding more police would prevent some people from committing crime but the department would still need the community's help.

"You can have 100 officers on each corner and if crime occurs and the community doesn't work with us in solving a lot of these crimes, they probably still wouldn't be solved," McKneely. "Now, you'll deter some guys from acting out but if they want to commit a crime and they have it in their mind that they're going to do it, then they will do it regardless of who's around.

McKneely getting to that full capacity number of 698 is always a goal but it would take a few police academies to occur back-to-back.

McKneely says not having a full capacity doesn't affect the department's goal of deterring crime.

"We have certain positions that we know that are more important than others and we are going to make sure, first and foremost, uniform patrols will be outfitted with everything they need because they are our first line of defense," he said. "They are the backbone of our department."

The Baton Rouge Area Foundation's annual CityStats report, which was released this week, say East Baton Rouge Parish residents are less worried about crime. The report commissioned the past six years to get the public's thoughts on a variety of issues.

The report found that 63 percent of residents said they feel safe waking alone in their neighborhood at night, up from 58 percent in 2013 and 55 percent in 2012, BRAF reported. The foundation's report noted that overall violent crime decreased 11 percent in 2013.